Background Information - UNOPS

UNOPS is an operational arm of the United Nations, supporting the successful implementation of its partners’ peacebuilding, humanitarian and development projects around the world. Our mission is to help people build better lives and countries achieve sustainable development.

UNOPS areas of expertise cover infrastructure, procurement, project management, financial management and human resources.

Working with us

UNOPS offers short- and long-term work opportunities in diverse and challenging environments across the globe. We are looking for creative, results-focused professionals with skills in a range of disciplines.

Diversity

With over 4,000 UNOPS personnel and approximately 7,000 personnel recruited on behalf of UNOPS partners spread across 80 countries, our workforce represents a wide range of nationalities and cultures. We promote a balanced, diverse workforce — a strength that helps us better understand and address our partners’ needs, and continually strive to improve our gender balance through initiatives and policies that encourage recruitment of qualified female candidates.

Work life harmonization

UNOPS values its people and recognizes the importance of balancing professional and personal demands.

Background Information - Job-specific

• The Iraq Information Center (IIC) was launched in 2015 following an inter-agency assessment into the information and communication needs of displaced populations in Iraq. Responding to one of the most complex humanitarian crises in the world, the Humanitarian Country Team agreed to the establishment of an inter-agency two-way communication and accountability mechanism that allows affected populations to shape their own relief and recovery.
• The IIC was launched as a two-way communication and accountability mechanism that allows affected populations to shape their own relief and recovery. It is a link to the partnership between those who wish to assist and those who need assistance. The IIC is accountable to both constituencies.
• The IIC is implemented by the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) with financial support from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the Iraq Humanitarian Pooled Fund (IHPF), the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), the Office of the UN Iraq Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator, the World Health Organisation (WHO), and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
• Since its launch, the IIC has handled more than 170,000 calls, giving information to more than 1,000,000 individuals. Call content ranges from requests for information on humanitarian services, including how to register for food vouchers to requests for help in dealing with gender-based violence. Feedback ranges from comments on how aid is distributed to suggestions on how to improve humanitarian programmes. The Iraq IIC conducts monitoring calls to evaluate UN assistance programming. Through established referral pathways, the centre channels caller feedback, complaints, and data to the humanitarian community to improve the way information is shared and to shape how humanitarian assistance is organised and delivered.

The IIC’s primary objective is to promote two-way communication between affected populations to:

• Empower communities through the provision of accessible and timely information on how to access humanitarian services and resources required to improve their situation
• Help ensure efficient and effective coordination of humanitarian actors operating in Iraq by collecting and circulating information about the urgent needs and priorities of affected populations
• Support an environment of transparency and accountability by:
• Establishing an easy-to-access and safe mechanism through which affected populations can lodge feedback and complaints
• Channelling feedback and complaints to humanitarian actors to influence humanitarian programming and shape quality advocacy
• UNOPS is seeking an Information Management Officer to support and enhance data analysis structure. In addition, the outcome of this consultancy also is to further strengthen and streamline IIC’s information sharing and reporting processes as part of its overall objective to strengthen accountability to affected populations in Iraq.

This result of this consultancy achieves IIC’s objectives through the provision of:

• High-quality information sharing and messaging, which give affected populations access to essential, relevant and timely information to allow for informed decision making and access to services;
• High-quality information products and services, which give humanitarian partners access to essential, relevant and timely evidenced-based data on needs and service gaps, including cross-sectorial analysis, to improve decision-making on strategic, programmatic direction to improve the response. Information products will also document impact of the call centre on contributing to improved and more relevant programming; and
• A professional complaints and feedback mechanism that closes the loop on complaints in a timely manner and measures caller satisfaction with the IIC services and the relevance of partner services to which the call centre refers callers.
• The incumbent reports to the IIC Project Manager, who reports to the Head of Programme – UNOPS Operational Hub in Amman.
• The incumbent is responsible to abide by security policies, administrative instructions, plans and procedures of the UN Security Management System and that of UNOPS.

Functional Responsibilities

With the aim of strengthening data analysis and the quality of communications and reporting services provided by the project as well as the internal capacity of the IIC, the Information Management Officer will perform the following duties with transparency and integrity, and in adherence to the humanitarian standards for information management as provided by the Active Learning Network for Accountability and Performance (ALNAP), the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) and the Sphere Handbook.

Consultancy Objectives: The Information Management Officer will:

• Work in partnership with the Information Management and Reporting Officer in regular duties and responsibilities, including, but not limited to: data cleaning and preparation, data processing and analysis, oversight and maintenance of internal data collection and management systems, production of ad-hoc and regular reports, as well as representation and/or presentation of IIC materials at relevant meetings.
• Develop strong relationships with reporting partners to ensure management and feedback of information gathered by the IIC is captured and documented. This requires a thorough review and understanding of the current communication procedures and an alignment of all activities with the objectives of the IIC in closing the feedback loop to affected populations.
• Document the impact of the IIC as an accountability mechanism in the response by developing a technical analysis plan in alignment with existing reporting indicators and new/thematic indicators as needs arise, which will include, but are not limited to: changes in partners’ programming, availability of services/feedback mechanisms to the affected population, as well as the timeliness of referrals on responsive/corrective action as a result of information shared by the IIC.
• Meet multiple reporting deadlines for a variety of clients and through a range of mediums where required. The incumbent must have proven experience in producing high-quality reports, requiring: strong English-language skills that translate complex ideas into simple messages; excellent design skills and proven knowledge of design software such as Adobe Creative Suites (InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop); and strong experience in information management software, including Excel as a minimum standard. Audio-visual experience is an asset.
• Strengthen the Iraq IIC’s ability to promote and enhance Accountability to Affected Populations through the provision of timely, accurate, and relevant information sharing, and in particular through the documentation of impact as mentioned below.

Deliverables: The Information Management Officer will conduct the following tasks:

• Support the Information Management and Reporting Officer in the regular revision and implementation of internal and external information structures, policies and standard operating procedures to facilitate, support, and promote data analyse and information sharing within the humanitarian and wider community.
• Establish and maintain effective relationships with stakeholders. Support and act where required as the accountability focal point between partners and the IIC and ensure information flows in accordance with established information management and reporting standards and procedures.
• Represent the IIC at meetings upon request, including but not limited to cluster-level meetings. Design and deliver cluster-specific, and other tailored presentations as required
•  Conduct daily and weekly analysis of call log, tracking cases referred to partners and their level of feedback as it comes in. Document this feedback from partners in a systematic way to facilitate analysis and reporting of impact and support the overall accountability of humanitarian actors to the affected population.
• Draft and edit promotional and/or communication materials/documents and strategy to raise the profile of the call centre among affected populations and humanitarian actors (nationally and globally), including communicating updates to Headquarters in Copenhagen.
• Document and perform regular analysis of the IIC’s impact on the response, including operational developments, achievements, constraints, concerns, and requests for support.
• Applying appropriate statistical principles, identify, analyse, and interpret trends or patterns in complex IIC datasets
• Explore and apply new data visualization techniques to increase insight and visibility to data trends and associated opportunities, challenges and priorities.
• Assist in the preparation of a range of written communication documents (such as reports, letters, emails and presentations) for internal and external project stakeholders as needed.
• Draft and assemble materials for internal and external meetings, as required.
• Perform any duty required by his/her direct supervisor.

Daily activities include but are not limited to:

• Reviewing the call log for urgent cases and sharing them through the standardised referral pathways for follow-up,
• Actively engage with partners to gather feedback on previously referred cases,
• Document cases and feedback for regular impact analysis,
• Analyse data and identify trends for ad-hoc reporting,
• Update standard operator procedures/guidelines in handling calls as required by the team Supervisor and Project Manager,
• Communicate with partners to update the IIC’s directory for humanitarian services.
• The interview process will include a technical examination and a phone interview.

Impact of results

The outcomes of the role impact’s UNOPS IIC project. The work of the Information Management Officer contributes to achievement of UNOPS mission and vision:

• To expand the capacity of the United Nations system and its partners to implement peace building, humanitarian and development operations that matter for people in need.
• To satisfy UNOPS partners with management services that meet world-class standards of quality, speed and cost-effectiveness.

In particular, the results of the Information Management Officer contribute to the following strategic goals:

• Enhanced accountability and transparency, through the delivery of services that meet or exceed expectations
• Enhanced UNOPS operational capacity through improved process efficiency and effectiveness of UNOPS practices

Monitoring and Progress Controls

• Assessment of task completion
• Successfully meeting deadlines

Education/Experience/Language requirements

Education (Level and area of required and/or preferred education)

• Master’s degree in Statistics, Sociology with quantitative and qualitative research background, Economics with Econometrics background, Science disciplines with strong data analytics background (mathematics, physics, biology, etc) from an accredited academic institution with five years of relevant professional experience (research experience will be also taken into account in lieu of work experience).
• Or University Bachelor degree in the above fields with seven years of relevant professional experience. Additional experience within the international development and/or humanitarian sector will be an added advantage.

Work Experience

Required:

• Strong background in data collection, data analysis and presentation
• Strong knowledge of quantitative and qualitative research methods
• At ease making public presentations and liaising with external stakeholders
• Strong experience in usage of Microsoft Office software package
• Strong experience in advanced Excel techniques (Power Query, DAX, Power Pivot)
• Strong experience in data visualization tools (Power Bi, Tableau, R)
• Good experience in usage of Adobe products, in particular Illustrator and InDesign
• Knowledge of Accountability to Affected Populations, and Communicating with Communities

Desired:

• Experience in advanced data analytics tools such as R, Stata, SPSS, Python for data science
• Some web development experience also an advantage
• Experience working in the humanitarian field, preferably including the Middle East
• Knowledge of current political, economic, and social fabric of Iraq
• Working knowledge of communicating with disaster affected populations and protection response infrastructure
• Duration and Timeline: initial two-month contract, with possibility to extend for up to one year depending on performance

Qualified candidates are requested to submit:

• CV indicating necessary qualifications and all relevant experience
• Cover letter demonstrating relevant experience
• Two (2) examples of previous work relating to IM/data collection, analysis and/or visualization
• A written technical examination and a verbal interview will be offered to shortlisted candidates

Source:https://jobs.unops.org/pages/viewvacancy/VADetails.aspx?id=18925#4